Diasporas

Michel Beine, Frédéric Docquier and Çaglar Özden ()
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Çaglar Özden: CREA, University of Luxembourg

DEM Discussion Paper Series from Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg

Abstract: Migration flows are shaped by a complex combination of self-selection and out-selection mechanisms. In this paper, we analyze how existing diasporas (the stock of people born in a country and living in an another one) affect the size and human-capital structure of current migration flows. Our analysis exploits bilateral dataset on international migration by educational attainment from 195 countries to 30 OECD countries in 1990 and 2000. Based on simple micro-foundations and controlling for various determinants of migration, we find diasporas increase migration flows, lower their average educational level and lead to higher concentration of low-skill migrants. Interestingly, diaspo- ras explain majority of the variability of migration flows and selection. This suggests that, without changing the generosity of family reunion programs, education-based selection rules are likely to have moderate impact. Our re- sults are highly robust to the econometric techniques, accounting for the large proportion of zeros and endogeneity problems.

JEL-codes: F22 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mig
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http://wwwen.uni.lu/content/download/24331/294817/file/2009-15_Diasporas.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Diasporas (2011)
Working Paper: Diasporas (2009)
Working Paper: Diasporas (2009)
Working Paper: Diasporas (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:luc:wpaper:09-15

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